lowering pH

[jwight]

I was wondering how to safely and inexpensively lower the pH (naturally if possible) of my water. It is constantly 7.4 from the tap and if this is safe to use I will. I am starting my first discus tank and I was wondering whether people use peat and whether it is worth it to keep 50 litres of water with an air stone and heater running in it, for water changes any advice would be helpful. If any body could tell me where to get a handheld digital pH, hardness, temperature monitor cheap in Adelaide I would be grateful.

[weird]

7.4 is absolutley fine ! Don't waste one cent on any chemical buffer. Your lucky to get 7.4 from the tap, that is good ! I wish I knew this earlier, would not have wasted money, and added so much stress to my fish by playing around with buffers.

I use direct tap water, 7.8 ph aged for 24 hours, airstone, heater, with water ager. Discus have never been happier.

Answering your other question, yes, peat is great stuff, use granuals in ""small"" amount as it is powerful stuff in its concentrated form ... but honestly right now, I think you will be fine with just preparing your water for 24 hours, with water ager, airstone and heater.

Keeping ph STABLE is more important than what is ph.

Also the only time I would worry about what is my ph is when breeding etc, then you might want to consider RO units etc ... but worry about that later.

Just keep your ph stable, and make sure you measure it from time to time, to make sure it ain't crashing or oscillating too much.

[anti-generic]

i strongly agree with weird

and i had to learn the hard way.
playing with peat can be extremely troublesome.
you have tobe very careful with what peat you buy coz some of it makes your water look like muddy lake water.
and from my expereinece adding peat while aging water created huge ph swings.
i tried adding bicarb soda to lift the kh and everything but nothing worked well.

so now i dont even bother. i only use water ager and age my water for 24hrs with air stones

and my fish are doing fine.

eric

[jwight]

Cool thanks guys I won't worry about peat just a suggestion what do you mediums do you use in an external filter then. Do you use undergravel filter because I have one spare I want to use. I was thinking a 50L bucket under the aquarium with an air stone, heater e.t.c. anywhere I can get a 50L I live in Adelaide.

[luvmydiscus]

Yes I absolutley agree with the two posts above. Leave you ph alone. I killed more fish by trying to lower my ph. At the time I was breeding Angel fish, after all the deaths I decided to just leave well enough alone as I was so discouraged with them.

To my amazment I had more baby angels in a ph of 7.8 - 8.0 :shock: Than I could have ever imagined. I also found them to be healthier fish and they did very well when I had to sell them to the local fish store. They will not alter their systems for a special ph for fish so this was just great as mine were used to the same ph as they had.

My new discus is in my 25 gal that has the ph as listed above. Healthy, eager to eat all the time and just a beautiful fish. I do have a piece of mopani in my tank that is quite old now but I use tap water and I don't let it sit for a day or in a bucket. I do use a water conditioner to remove the chlorine and chloramine from our water source as we are heavily chlorinated here. Fish are all happy, healthy and doing great. Leave all the chemicals on the store shelves :wink:

Undergravel filters are not great in my opinion. If you are wanting to put it in your discus tank I would strongly discourage you from doing this. They are hard to clean and just a great trap for waste that will sooner or later affect your tank. Go with a good outside or inside filter.